


Hanahaki

by Cubriffic



Category: Kid n Teenagers (Web Comic)
Genre: F/M, Hanahaki Disease, Why did this take forever to write o o f, he deserves better, poor Chris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 04:53:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13427208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cubriffic/pseuds/Cubriffic
Summary: All of his problems began and ended with Betty.





	Hanahaki

**Author's Note:**

> O O F FIRST FIC OF THE YEAR
> 
> I've been wanting to re-write my old hanahaki fic bc I hate it with a passion, and it ended up really long whoops

All of Chris’s problems began and ended with Betty. It didn’t matter if it was something as small as misplacing one of Foofy’s cat toys or as large as having a grenade blow up in his face. In Chris’s mind, all of these were caused by Betty, his main rival and his self-proclaimed ‘enemy’.

But now, she had caused a much bigger problem. Unlike her usual tactics like pressing a gun to Chris’s head, this one hadn’t been physically caused by her. Well, actually, Betty really didn’t have that much to do with Chris’s current situation, at least up-front. Of course, that wouldn’t stop Chris from blaming it on her.

After all, wouldn’t you blame your crush if you started throwing up flowers?

It had been a usual day for the teen. With his mother and brother out for the day and his best friend Ted working, it had left Chris with nothing to do. So he had spent the day around the house, mucking around with his cat Foofy and tidying up. By midday, Chris was begging for someone to come home, as he sat down on his couch, turning the TV on as Foofy sat in his lap. Not an unusual sight, but certainly a boring one to Chris. Hell, he’d rather Betty show up with her army right behind her than be left alone like this.

That’s when the coughing started. Chris had been plagued with what he assumed was a cold for about a week now despite it being the middle of summer. At first, he brushed it off as a usual cough, but then it got worse. His face grew red as he coughed, feeling something tickle at his throat, as if he had swallowed something. He finally coughed up whatever was in his throat, despite scaring Foofy out of his lap in the process. He looked into his palm, frowning.

_Flowers?_

No, they weren't flowers. They were small white flower petals, looking as if they had been freshly plucked instead of coming right out of Chris’s throat. Chris could only stare at them, as his mind raced. Even he could tell that this wasn’t normal, and he had no idea what the hell was happening. But he had an idea who would know.

Chris practically jumped up from the couch (scaring poor Foofy yet again), running over to the phone. He jabbed in a number, before waiting for someone to pick up. After 5 rings, they did.  
“Good afternoon, this is The Happy Melon, how may I help you?”  
Chris practically beamed at his manager’s voice. “Cherry! It’s Chris.”  
“Oh,” Chris could hear Cherry’s disappointment. “What do you want?”  
“Is Ted on break yet? It’s an emergency.”  
Cherry groaned. “Yes, but you better be quick. This isn’t some personal number, you know.”

“I know.” Chris tapped his foot against the ground out of impatience and anxiety. He could hear people talking in the background of the phone.

“Chris?” The blonde man let out a sigh of relief at the sound of his friend’s tired voice.  
“Teddy! How are you?”  
“I asked you to stop calling me that,” Ted sighed. “Anyways, what’s up?”  
“You know how I’ve had that cold all week, right?”  
“Yeah.”  
“I, uh…” Chris let out a nervous chuckle. “I don’t think it’s a cold.”  
“...What do you mean, Chris?” Ted’s voice was laced with concern. It only served to make Chris more nervous.  
“I coughed up flowers five minutes ago.”

Chris heard something hit the ground, as well as Ted swear.  
“What?!”  
“Look, I don’t think it’s that bad!” Chris was beginning to think that telling Ted this was a bad idea; he had a tendency to overreact to this type of stuff. “I’ve probably been sleep-eating flowers or something-”

“Chris, look up hanahaki disease.”  
“Eh?”  
“Just do it.” Ted sounded nervous, as if he knew something that Chris didn’t. It made the other teen uncomfortable.  
There was yelling in the background, and Chris could recognize Cherry’s voice. Ted yelled something back, before going back to Chris.  
“Look, Chris, I gotta go, but I’ll talk later on, alright?”  
“Oh, alright, I’ll see you later.”

Chris hung up, barely sparing a glance at the phone as he walked to the computer. What in the goddamn world was hanahaki?

-_-_-_-_-

As it turned out, it wasn't pretty.

Chris spent almost half an hour scrolling through Google trying to find a definition. Either every website was in Japanese, or he just didn’t understand a single word of what they were saying. He finally managed to find a website which was understandable. He looked over what it said.

_The Hanahaki Disease is an illness born from one-sided love, where the patient throws up and coughs of flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love._

Chris tensed up at this. For fucks sake, of course Betty had to be involved with this. He forced himself to continue reading. He could blame Betty for this later.

_There are two ways to cure the Hanahaki disease. You can remove the blossoming (and wilting) flowers, but your feelings also get removed. The only country that offers the surgery is Japan._

Chris tapped his fingers against the desk. Alright, so he wasn’t getting the surgery. Besides, they wouldn’t be able to get the money to pay for it. He looked at the second option.

_Or, the person you’re pining for can reciprocate your love._

Oh, fuck. That was not happening. He knew that Betty would never love him back. That was pretty obvious from the way she would laugh whenever Chris got defeated, or how she’d constantly go after him no matter what. Sure, she might have liked him in the past. But now that they were at each other’s throats all the time, to the point where it could be considered dangerous. It would be a fucking joke if she loved him.

As if on cue, he started coughing again. He could see more petals flowing out of his mouth, before he finally stopped coughing. He brushed the white petals out of the way, looking back at the screen.

_The Hanahaki disease is NOT harmless. You can actually die from it. Because the growing flowers will eventually clog up your respiratory system and your windpipe… leading to eventual death due to lack of air._

Chris’s chest tightened up at the last paragraph. No. No, he didn’t want to die. But he didn’t want to never feel love again.

Oh, poor, sweet Chris. That would soon become the least of his problems.

-_-_-_-_-

“So basically, you’re going to die soon.”

Chris grumbled something in response as he perched in the tree, walkie-talkie in one hand, gun in another. He had been holding off telling Aiden for weeks about his awful disease, even though Ted already knew about it. In fact, the only reason Aiden had found out was because Chris had been hiding his coughed-up flower petals (and more recently, buds) in the bin, and his little brother had taken out the trash and found the flowers right at the top of the pile.

“No, Aiden, I’m not going to die.” That’s what Chris had been telling himself since he found out.  
“Are ya sure? You literally have flowers bursting from your lungs Chris.” Aiden’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkie. Chris groaned.  
“Weren’t you supposed to be on lookout?”  
“Oh, shit, you’re right.”  
“Watch your fucking language, Aiden.” Chris muttered into the walkie-talkie, choosing to focus on the park in front of him. So far, nobody had shown up, aside from one or two civilians. It seemed that Betty was nowhere to be found.

“Dude, Red Alert!!”  
Chris chuckled at Aiden’s voice. Well, he was wrong. She was here.

The teen moved out of his position, perching himself on the other side of the tree. There he could just make out the blue figure of Aiden on the other side of the park, and the yellow figure of Betty. She was overseeing what looked to be a giant fight between the Cat Army and the Dog Army. Chris grumbled. Aiden had warned him a bit late than he had hoped, but he could still conduct his plan.

“Go now!” Chris hissed into the walkie-talkie, waiting for what was about to happen. Bombs of all sorts began going off (not harmful, of course; just the ones that caused noise and smoke), letting Chris jump down from his spot and run over without the girl noticing. As the smoke cleared away and he got closer, he could hear Betty coughing, and see her waving the smoke away. She didn’t even see him until the gun was pointed at her chest.

“Don’t let the smoke get to your pores, Betty Boop~’ Chris winked as Betty finally looked up, She scowled.  
“Ahahaha. Very funny, Chris.” Despite the confidence in her voice, Chris noticed her bright green eyes were filling with worry.   
“I know I am.” Chris chuckled, sneaking a glance at Betty. Her hands were held in defeat, her brown hair falling over her face as her eyes stayed on the gun. Chris’s smile faltered slightly as he noticed how bothered she looked. It wasn’t a look that Chris liked on her; it made him feel guilty and maybe even a bit protective of her-

Chris dropped the gun in shock as something tickled his throat. Of all the times that this could happen, it had to be now? However, it didn’t seem as controlled as the previous times; it seemed more violent that usual. He fell to the ground, trying desperately to stop coughing. His vision blurred as he began to struggle to breathe. Chris could hear people calling out his name, though he couldn’t make out who it was. All he could see was the blur of white and red petals, buds and stems, all speckled with the blood of the teen.

Then the world went dark.

-_-_-_-_-_-

“So this ‘hanahaki’ thing isn’t some crap made up online?”  
“Betty, you’ve been asking me this for a month now.”  
“Just making sure.”

Chris fiddled with his laptop charger. After that traumatic experience at the park, his mother had refused to let him leave bed, taking him to doctor after doctor to see if they could help. He’d had to quit his job and send Foofy out to command his army for him, considering he was bedridden, and would be for some time. To his surprise, Betty had been the one to see him afterwards, and had made a habit of coming over at least once a day to see him. Chris had been sure that it was out of pity, but now he honestly couldn’t tell.

Either way, Betty was sitting next to Chris on his bed, observing whatever cat video he was looking at on YouTube. A bucket containing the blood and flowers that the teenage boy had been throwing up sat on the bedside table next to Chris. Chris looked as he felt- he was rather pale, with a tired look in his usually bright amber eyes. Not a good look for him at all.

Chris frowned. “Why are you even here anyways?”  
“Well, SOMEONE has to check up on you,” Betty shrugged, leaning on Chris’s shoulder. “Besides, it’s getting pretty boring without someone to go after.”  
Chris could feel another round of flowers threatening to come up, but he pushed it down. “I have Aiden and Ted, you know. And it shouldn’t be hard for you to make some new enemies.”  
Betty stammered at that, face reddening from embarrassment. Chris grabbed his bucket, spitting up the flowers that he finally allowed out. He grimaced as he noticed the blood that came up with it. Not a good sight.

“H...How long did they say it’ll take for you to die?” Betty asked as Chris put the bucket back in its place. He wiped his mouth, shrugging.  
“Apparently it takes between two months to years.”  
“And you’ve had it for how long?”  
“Ah… two months? Almost three?”  
Betty’s face when pale at that. Despite this, she shrugged. “Well, just tell me who you like. I’ll get ‘em to like you back.”

“What!?” Chris shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that, Betty!”  
“Aww come on, you can tell me,” Betty flicked one of her pigtails, tugging on it in thought. “Is it Ted?”  
“No!” Chris crossed his arm in an ‘x’. “Betty I’m begging you, please drop it!”  
“It can’t be Nick… right?”  
“Jesus christ Betty, drop it!”  
“Wait! What about that red-haired chick at The Happy Melon? I swear her name was Candy or something…”

Chris began to cough violently as Betty talked. He barely managed to get the bucket before throwing up more petals and blood. Though this time, it seemed that there was more blood than flowers coming out of him. By the time Chris had finished, his head seemed to swirl, and his vision was hazy. Rubbing his mouth clean of excess blood, he rested against the back of his bed, sighing. He turned towards Betty, ready to give her a stern look, but stopped as he saw how remorseful she looked.

“I’m sorry, Chris,” Betty fumbled with her hands, avoiding Chris’s gaze. “I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard.”  
“It’s fine.” Chris waved his hand, signing for her to stop. She took the hint, quieting up. 

They sat in silence like that for what seemed like forever, the only sounds coming from the open window of the young man’s room.

-_-_-_-_-

He held out longer than he expected. He lasted four months until death caught up to him, giving him anything but peace on his last days. Chris was now struggling to breathe, rarely speaking to keep his breath. No surgery could save him now; he was too far gone, with him expecting to die any day now. But he stayed strong, as four months turned into five, with Chris still clinging onto life.

Chris stayed at home during his dying days, with family members and friends visiting him. He couldn’t remember much of them though; they seemed to pass like a blur to him. The coughing never stopped though, however he noted that they seemed to be far more blood than ever before. The flowers came up fully bloomed now, a eerie sight amongst the splats of blood in his bucket.

Betty stopped visiting once he got worse. And Chris could understand; she made it worse whenever she was there. He still couldn’t help but blame her for this suffering. He could have told her, but she would never love him back. To Chris, she just wasn’t the type of person to like him.

She did come back though, when Chris was at death’s door. Everyone was there- Ted, Aiden, his mother, even Cherry had shown up to give him her condolences. And of course, Betty had shown up, sunflowers in hand and tears in her eyes. It pained Chris to see her so torn, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to help her. But he also knew that she’d be alright soon.

“Chris, we can help you,” A boy’s voice (Aiden? Chris could barely tell voices apart now) called out to him, wavy with anxiety. “Just please tell us who you like.” Chris only shook his head in return.  
“Please, Chris,” Another voice (Chris was sure that it was Ted speaking) spoke to him, softer than the previous one. “If you tell us, we can get you back on your feet.”  
Someone gripped his hand, causing him to look sideways. Next to him was Betty, tears falling down her cheeks. Chris coughed, a flower falling from his mouth.

He was about to die. He had to say something.

Chris only rested against the bed, eyes closing. “Betty"  
“Huh..?”  
“It’s Betty,” Chris’s voice was wheezy, and he struggled to get the words out. “The girl I like.”

As his sentence ended, he could hear the sounds around him silencing. He began to cough rapidly, feeling his body begin to give up on him. He fell back, blood splattering his face and clothes. His eyes closed.

He was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Im so sorry
> 
> Blame my insta followers they voted to kill him


End file.
